One Intern: no show!

[im4real]

Hi there!

I'm actually MD spouse, but this experience has bothered me, so I thought I would share. My husband has started his 2nd year in Family Medicine and the new Interns arrived, well, all but one! So, instead of 8 Interns, there are only 7. My husband is on his Ob/Peds service rotation this month and has to pick up the slack for the Intern resident that was unable to make it here yet. So, even though evenings are wonderful because my husband hardly has call like he did last year, he winds up staying longer hours to make sure all is order with the extra patient load and responsibility. I know there are no easy solutions for this unpredictable situation, but I just wish my husband could have enjoyed starting his 2nd year a little easier than this. I don't know if any of you can relate to this, but any response will be appreciated, even if it's just to say you read it! ha,ha!! I just hate seeing him unhappy about his situation, even though we won't talk about it negatively. Next rotation will be a better month though...

Take care,
Christy

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[wooo]

hopefully it will be back o normal soon. Be patient with hubby.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I can't sympathize from a spouse's POV but I do know what its like when one of the interns/residents doesn't show and you have to pick up the slack. We are down 1 today and last weekend the new intern on my old service was alone because his fellow intern got the weekend off (not sure how that worked).

Hopefully when the intern returns your husband will be able to finagle some free time as payback!

 

[DOtobe]

Hey im4real,
I sympathize with you and your husband's situation, but I am mainly writing because I see you are from Washington, PA. I went to college at Washington and Jefferson and I just thought it was really cool that someone who may have actually heard of my school is on this forum!

 

[Popoy]

How often does this happen, an intern not showing up? What are the consequences of these actions?

 

[Krazed_Medic]

Originally posted by Popoy:
•How often does this happen, an intern not showing up? What are the consequences of these actions?•

I would think it would be a pretty serious consequence, that is, unless they knew about it ahead of time. I hope that's the case...for the interns sake.

 

[Popoy]

I'm sure it's pretty serious, but I was wondering about specifics.... I mean, does the intern have a chance to catch up or does he have to wait to get another internship, or will he have to sit the entire year, or what? Any specifics, if you please.... Thanx

 

[im4real]

Hi!

Thanks for the replies! All I can tell you is that it is health-related and the residents found out the week the Interns started, so I can't know for sure how much in advance the program director knew, but I would venture to guess not too soon. I too was wondering how this Intern would catch up. My guess (again) is that he will complete the rotations he missed at the end of his residency or have it juggled around so that he will be staying July, August, September following his class's graduation. All this is mere speculation and difficult to predict.

Wooo,
Thank you for the encouragement. My husband does not complain much, hardly ever, but I can see his strength being zapped out of him and it worries me. It's along the same lines of residents overworked, exceedingly great patient load, etc. It just worries me!

DOtobe,
Hi there! So, you went to W&J. What a nice school! What did you major in, if I may ask? I see you are from Erie, PA? We have an female Intern from there. She is a wonderful person and Intern, so far!!! We're originally from Morgantown, WV, almost Heaven!!!

Popoy,
All I can tell you from my knowledge is that this is the first time it's happened here. I am not sure what and if there will be any major consequences. It will be interesting to see what happens in September. And since he is coming in end of Sept. he'll start his scheduled rotation the 1st of October, I'm sure. He'll be 3 months behind. I don't know what they'll do. I wondering what are their options? I'll let you know as I know anything. I guess that may be something to consider when looking for a candidate for residency.

Christy

 

[Popoy]

Thanks Christy.... I'll look forward to an update as I am very interested in what happens if this does occur....

 

[Billie]

Here is an example of what happened at my local hospital. Five interns were to start, but only one did! At my school, you have to pass part II of COMLEX to graduate. They didn't pass, so they didn't graduate. So they could not start their internship until they retook it and passed. This put them starting around October. Which meant they finished their internship late. Which meant they either started their residency late (if they were allowed) OR had to wait until the following year to start their residency. It really messed them up for quite a few years.

Billie

 

[Popoy]

How about just a "NO SHOW" because they over slept or some mundane reason? It seems understandable that one would be a year or so behind if they didn't pass the boards, but how about passing the boards and the intern was simply a no show? Will there be consequences besides being held back?

 

[Krazed_Medic]

speaking of oversleeping, How hard would they be on you if you were to oversleep on accident? Are they understanding? I'm thinking that once in a great while would be ok, but not making it a habit huh?

 

[commymommy]

Christy,

We had something similar happen to us twice during training...In my husband's second year, the interns started and one of them left suddenly in the middle of the NIGHT after about 3 weeks...he and his wife were having trouble and she moved back to Canada, where she was originally from...and he packed his bags and went to get her...No one knows what happened, but he was supposed to return and never did. During Thomas' fellowship, a new fellow was supposed to start and then she got pregnant and decided that she only wanted to work part-time and couldn't start until 6 months later.

The end result of both situations was that the attendings did not pick up any of the slack, and the residents/fellows had to find a way to make things work.

In terms of sleeping in late...I think everyone has probably done that....and there are times that residents have broken legs and had to be off...one girl got a terrible bacterial infection and was out for 3 weeks....If it is sick leave, it is generally not tacked on to the end of training...but if you take time off for other reasons then you won't finish residency until later....

One of the girls in a neighboring residency program was having trouble passing her boards and she took time off to study...this was added to the time of her residency...

Interesting topic, Christy...
Kris

 

[Winged Scapula]

I'm sure oversleeping does happen. As a matter of fact, I KNOW it happens after I came in to pre-round and saw that my senior resident hadn't seen ANY of her patients. I paged and paged, and finally had the operator call. She was still asleep 1.5 hours after we started rounding!

Occasional slips will be tolerated. A habit like that will get you booted.

We are supposed to have a fellow this month on SICU - so far AWOL without word. Guess that happens as well.

 

[AJM]

This past June, our surgery department held a "graduation" for last year's surgery interns the week before they were done with their internship. They had it on a Sunday night, and apparently they had such a good time that half of them called in "sick" the next day, or just plain didn't show up! The senior residents didn't seem to mind too much because it was just a one-time occurrence, and they felt like the interns kind of "deserved" that day.

Also, I know several residents who have had major health problems (breaking limbs, requiring surgery, etc), and their program directors have been very understanding and willing to help them out.

But, as Kimberli said, if someone starts making a habit of oversleeping, they are definitely in trouble.

 

[im4real]

Our eighth Intern has now arrived and we're happy about that! I hope he will be able to survive his Intern year. He has 6 service months to do within the 9 months of his Intern year. His less stressful, non-service months (3 he has to make-up) he'll have to finish after his class's graduation.

Just wanted to update y'all on how they handled this situation here.

Take care,
Christy

 

[Stinky T]

What's the policy at your institution regarding paternal leave? I was told that I could take up to a month off, but I had to make it up at the end of the program. Since I am doing a transitional year, this is not possible. Well...I guess it is technically possible, but I'd have to contact my residency to ask if I could start and end late. Anyway, our policy seems sort of inconsistent because I heard that last year, one of the IM residents got 2 week of paid paternal leave.

 

[im4real]

Give me a minute or two. I have the policy guide on the shelf. I'll get back to you shortly.

Christy

 

[im4real]

You know what? It states Maternity Leave and doesn't mention Paternity Leave in the Policy Manual. I am going to check into this! My husband did NOT get any paternal leave during his Intern year. He had to take his personal days which really sucked!

Christy

 

[Scrofula]

When I was doing my third year surgery rotation my intern overslept twice and was late for rounds. She got teased by the vascular fellow, who would get pissed if anyone was more than 30 seconds late, but nothing too horrible happened. I think only a robot could preround at 5:00am every day without oversleeping a few times!